An aggressive swan has been put down in Horw, near Lucerne, after it attacked a bather in the town’s lake.

 

"/> An aggressive swan has been put down in Horw, near Lucerne, after it attacked a bather in the town’s lake.

 

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ANIMAL

City lake swan killed after attack on swimmer

An aggressive swan has been put down in Horw, near Lucerne, after it attacked a bather in the town’s lake.

 

This is not the swan in the story.
Stefan Janeschitz

The swan was killed with a targeted shot by city authorities in Horw, near Lucerne, after its latest attack resulted in a broken collarbone for a lake swimmer.

The animal had attacked another person a few minutes earlier and had been known to pose a threat to humans for six weeks with its increasingly aggressive behaviour, said a statement by the Horw municipality.

Its attacks included an attempt to drown a swimmer by sitting on him, a report in the 20 Minuten newspaper said. In recent days, the animal had also attacked another swan family with cygnets.

“This is extremely dangerous and can lead to drowning,” Otto Holzgang, a wildlife biologist for the local agriculture and forest department, told the 20 Minuten newspaper. Another swan in the area grabbed headlines in 2008 for its aggressive behaviour.

“Maybe it is the same animal – but we do not know for sure,” Holzgang told the paper.

 According to biologist Hans Schmid of the Swiss Ornithological Institute on Lake Sempach, such behaviour is unnatural for a swan, especially when its young are old enough.

“There is no other solution than shooting,” he was quoted as saying by 20 Minuten.

However, not everyone agrees with putting the animals down as a solution to the problem.

“That’s an exaggeration – he was only defending his territory,” 27-year-old Horw resident Steven Langer was quoted as saying. 

The Horw municipality statement added that the dead swan’s cygnets are sufficiently well-developed to survive without their father.

Barriers and warnings on the lake shores have not discouraged swimmers from taking dips in the lake’s blue waters. City lake swimming is very popular in Switzerland, with lakes and river banks in Geneva, Bern, Lucerne and Zurich constantly crowded with bathers in the summer months.

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ANIMAL

Paris authorities to shut down bird market over cruelty concerns

The Paris city council on Wednesday agreed to shut down a live bird market operating in the historic centre close to Notre Dame cathedral, responding to rights activists who called it a cruel and archaic operation.

Paris authorities to shut down bird market over cruelty concerns
Photo: AFP

The bird market on Louis Lepine square in the centre of the French capital has long been a fixture in Paris, operating close to the famous flower market.

But Christophe Najdovski, Paris' deputy mayor in charge of animal welfare, said that the market was a centre for bird trafficking in France while conditions for the birds were not acceptable.

“This is why we are committed to changing the regulations to ban the sale of birds and other animals,” he said.

The closure had been urged by activists from the Paris Animals Zoopolis collective who had called the practice of showing the caged birds “cruel and archaic”.

France and Paris have in the last months adopted a series of measures aiming to show they are at the forefront of efforts to protect animal welfare.

The government said in September it planned to “gradually” ban mink farms as well the use of wild animals in travelling circuses and dolphins and orcas in theme parks.

Parc Asterix, which normally has some two million visitors a year, announced last month it would close its dolphin and sea lion aquarium.

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